Why the OSCE endures: the Helsinki Final Act at 50 in illiberal central Asia

Abstract The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is widely criticized for its inability to fulfil its liberal reform agenda, and many view it as a defunct institution amid the broader crisis of the liberal international order. With the Helsinki Final Act having turned 50 in August 2025, this article asks why the OSCE persists despite its apparent failures and the criticism from its illiberal members. It argues that the organization endures not because of its liberal achievements and purposes, but because of its dual nature as an enterprise association and as a civil association grounded in sovereign equality. While the OSCE has struggled to promote democracy and human rights, particularly in the face of contestation by Russia and rising illiberalism across Eurasia, it continues to be a platform for principled internationalism. This article shows how states in central Asia have curtailed the organization's liberal agenda while remaining members in order to retain an equal voice in multilateral dialogue and to adapt its reformist agenda to their benefit. The OSCE's persistence, therefore, reflects not institutional failure but the enduring appeal of a civil association based on sovereign equality—a principle that tenuously binds its diverse members, even amid deep political division across Eurasia.